"I want to be able to help people with immigration issues, especially people who are unable to speak English." - 18-year-old Yazmin Garcia

Jovani Sandoval Hernandez graduated from Tarrant High School in May. Because of a program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, he is able to legally work or attend college in Alabama. (Photo courtesy Jovani Sandoval Hernandez)

BIRMINGHAM,
Alabama – Jovani Sandoval Hernandez and Yazmin Garcia hope to become nurses, a
desire born from a passion for helping others – a habit already ingrained in both
teenagers.

The two
recent high school graduates have never met – one lives in Tarrant, the other
in Dothan – but both want to help Spanish-speakers in Alabama, from translating
basic conversations to navigating the state's treacherous immigration laws.

"I honestly
don't think I knew what I was going to do after graduation," Garcia said. "I
just thought 'I guess I'll have to keep looking and hopefully some sort of
reform will come up.' I was living day by day until deferred action."

She wasn't
alone in her thinking, particularly about the futility of excelling in high school
only to be rejected by colleges across the state.

"I think
that was the case for a lot of people in high school who weren't sure if they'd
be able to go to college after that," she said. "A lot of people were thinking,
'Why even get good grades? Why even do this? I won't be able to go to college anyway.'"

USCIS
reports that applications from 2,378 undocumented immigrants have been accepted
so far, meaning they meet the criteria to complete the process, which includes
a background check, fingerprinting and a case review.

Itzel Guillen (left) sorts the documents she needs to apply for a work permit along with Lucero Maganda at her home Aug. 15, 2012, in San Diego, Calif. Guillen and Maganda are among those hoping for the right to work legally in America without being deported by qualifying for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. (AP file photo)

According to
USCIS, 1,546 immigrants in Alabama have been approved under the policy.

Deferred
action does not provide a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. It's
not permanent citizenship, nor is it U.S. residency.

The
requirements to qualify for DACA are stringent, and the $465 price tag is too
steep for many.

Amanda
Cherry, a school engagement worker for the Hispanic Interest Coalition of
Alabama, said DACA is aimed at immigrants in their teens and early
20s.

"Because it
was something done by Obama and not the legislature, it couldn't be as encompassing,"
Cherry said. "It's more of a reinterpretation of policy. It's not a change of
immigration status, but this kind of weird limbo state of protection from
deportation."

Paying to
submit a DACA application is just the first financial hurdle – and hardly the
most daunting. Those who plan to attend any Alabama college or university can't
receive federal or state financial aid and sometimes must pay out-of-state
tuition.

"First, it
was people trying to enroll in college with deferred action and getting
denied," Cherry said. "Now it's more of 'I can go to college, but I need help
paying for it.'"

A better life and a better education

A week after Jovani Sandoval Hernandez's graduation from Tarrant High School, blue and gold balloons still
adorned the walls of his family's modest apartment.

Hernandez
applied for DACA in November and was accepted in January. Before the policy was
enacted, his options were limited.

"I was not
going to go to school because I would not be able to apply for it and they
wouldn't accept me," he said. "My plans were just to work and save money and
try to go to college if I could."

Now he plans
to work for a year before enrolling at Lawson State or Jefferson State
community college in 2014.

"If I have
to work more than one year, that's what I'll do to save money," he said. "Or I'll
work part-time and take classes."

Either
school, ideal because of proximity to his home, was, at least figuratively, a
world away from Hernandez just a year ago.

His family
moved to Alabama from Quintana Roo, Mexico, when he was 10 years old, as his mother
sought a better life and a better education for her children.

"The problem
in Mexico is that whenever you're done studying you can't find a job in what
you studied," his mother said.

After two years
in community college, he hopes to transfer to UAB to study nursing.

"I like
helping people," he said. "One of the main reasons I want to be a nurse is that
my grandmother is diabetic. She taught me to take care of her, taught me about
insulin and her treatment."

Hernandez's
mother could not be prouder of her son, for what he has accomplished and what
he hopes to become.

"He very
much likes to help, and (nursing) is a job you do with your heart," she said. "He
wouldn't do it for the money, but because he cared about it."

Continuing advocacy efforts

Yazmin
Garcia, now 18, was 3 when her parents brought her and her older brother to the
U.S. They found a house next to her aunt and uncle's home in Dothan, where she
entered kindergarten and graduated from Rehobeth High School last week.

Garcia is
fluent in English and Spanish, but her parents know just enough English to get
by when paying bills or buying groceries.

Garcia said
her parents came to the U.S. to pursue a better life for their children, but
living here is a challenge.

"They
struggle with their English, and there are barriers that they have that keep
them from doing a lot of things that people here take for granted," she said.

Garcia often
helps her parents and their friends with everyday tasks such as translating at
the doctor's office or going to a utility provider to sort out a problem.

Garcia
applied for DACA in September and was accepted in January.

Garcia's
mother cleans houses and her father works in construction. She also has a
part-time job at the mall. Their pooled resources will go toward her college tuition.

Garcia's brother,
seven years her senior, works as a nurse. As Garcia has grown up, she has watched
him go through nursing school and begin his career.

Garcia plans
to attend Wallace Community College in Dothan, where she hopes to be accepted
into a two-year program to become a registered nurse. Eventually, she wants to
become a pediatrician.

"By that
time hopefully they'll be able to admit me," she said. "Maybe the DREAM Act or
something similar will be passed, some sort of immigration reform."

The DREAM Act
is a federal immigration reform law that would create a path to citizenship for
immigrant students who meet certain criteria. The legislation has been proposed
in several iterations and has been revamped but has not been passed.

Garcia is part of a group called the Wiregrass Dreamers whose members organize workshops
on immigration policy and attend marches throughout the state.

She hasn't
ruled out studying law to become an immigration attorney, continuing her
advocacy for Alabama's immigrants.

"Whichever I
do, I want to be able to help people with immigration issues, especially people
who are unable to speak English," she said.